
Oass c -\-7 

Book -^'^^^ 



E IT L O a T 



ITife, Cljaractcr aitb ^iittlit ^crljitts 



OF THE LATE PRESIDENT 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



Council N"o. 33, Union League of America, 

AT 

SUMNER HALL, EAST BOSTON, MAY 8, 1865, 

BY 

Rev. warren H. CUD WORTH: 



RECORD OF THE OTHER PROCEEDINGS, AND A DESCRIPTION OF 
THE DECORATIONS PUT DP FOR THE OCCASION. 



Printed by vote of the C outicil • 



BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 4 SPRING LANE. 

18 6 5. 



E IT L O a Y 



^ife, ^Ijaradtr aitir l^nhlk ^txbias 



OF THE LATE PRESIDENT 



ABEAHAM LIJSTCOLN', 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



Council 'No, 33, Union League of America, 

AT 

SUMNER HALL, EAST BOSTON, MAY 8, I860, 

BY 

Rev. WAREEN H. CUDWORTH: 



EECOED OF THE OTHER PROCEEDINGS, AND A DESCRIPTION OF 
THE DECORATIONS PUT UP FOR THE OCCASION." 



Frinted by vot^ o^ Hie Council. i 



BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, i SPRING LANE. 
18 6 5. 



,Cq4 



At a meeting of Council No. 33, held April 24tli, at Union Hall, East 
Boston, it was voted that a Committee be chosen to invite Rev. "W. II. 
CuDwoRTii to deliver an Eulogy on the "Life, Character, and Public Ser- 
vices of the late President Abraham Lincoln," and make all arrangements 
necessary for carrying the vote into execution. G. AV. Spear, Andrew 
IIali,, and J. II. D Alton, were appointed that Committee. 




RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS. 



The Committee waited upon Mr, Cudworth and secured his 
services, obtained Sumner Hall, on Elbow Street, for the 
accommodation of members of the Council and their friends, 
appointed Monday, May 8th, for the proposed tribute, and 
prepared the following 

PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES. 

1. Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, " The prisoner's hope." Words 
and music by George F. Root. 

In the prison cell I sit, 

Thinking mother dear, of you, 

And our bright and happy home so far away ; 

And the tears they fill my eyes 

Spite of all that I can do, 

Tho' I try to cheer my comrades and be gay. 

Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching, 

Cheer up comrades, they will come. 

And beneath the starry flag 

"We shall breathe the air again. 

Of the free land in our own beloved home. 

In the battle front we stood 
When their fiercest charge they made, 
And they swept us off a hundred men or more ; • 
But before we reached their lines 
They were beaten back dismayed. 
And we heard the cry of vict'ry o'er and o'er. 
Tramp, tramp, tramp, &c. 

So within the prison cell, 
We are waiting for the day 
That shall come to open wide the iron door. 
And the hollow eye grows bright. 
And the poor heart almost gay, 
As we think of seeing home and friends once more. 
Tramp, tramp, tramp, &c. 



4 

2. Address. By the President. 

3. Dirge. Words and music by J. "W. Turner, of East 

Boston. 

I. 

Mournful ! 0, tearful ! Columbia to-day ! 
Sorrow and sadness obscuring the way, 
Millions of freemen all tremulous tell 
The tidings that have our loved country befell. 

Mournful ! 0, tearful ! Columbia to-day, 

The chief of our nation has faded away. 

II. 

Thus has a patriot, the good and the great, 
Tiie head of the nation, our dear magistrate; 
Struck down in life by a murderous hand. 
The true martyr'd chief of our great Union band. 
Mournful! 0, tearful, &c. 

III. 

Weep ! 0, Columbia ! your tears long will lave 
The grave of the fallen, the "honest" and brave ; 
His mcm'ry will live 'till time is no more, 
And nations of earth his loss will deplore. 
Mournful ! O, tearful, &c. 

4. Eulogy. 

5. America. Sung by the audience. 

The East Boston Sumner Glee Chib funiishcd and led the 
singing. 

This chih is composed of the following gentlemen : Leonard 
F. Merrill, Cliarlcs C. Cooi)er, Frank Leavitt, Thomas F. Craig, 
James E. Merrill. 

The decorations, put up by Col. "William Beal and the 
committee of arrangomcMits, were as follows: — 

Over the entrance was disjdayed a large l)anner bearing the 
names, 

Washinoton. Jefferson. Jackson. 



At the right of this was a second banner, inscribed with the 
nranes of 

Grant. Sheridan. Butler. 

At the left was a third, having upon it 

Sherman. Burnside. Banks. 

Both sides of the hall were adorned with large American 
flags drawn up over the windows and festooned so as to fall 
gracefully towards the floor. 

All the pillars were covered with black and white drapery, 
while from the centre of the ceiling, red, white and blue 
streamers, intermixed with the emblems of mourning, hung 
pendant and were caught up at the corners of the hall. 

Before the centre of the stage was a large American eagle 
with extended wings, holding aloft a cluster of flags fringed 
with black, flanked on either side by black and white drapery 
interspersed. 

The speaker's stand was profusely adorned with silk flags 
which fell in graceful folds on all sides, directly in the rear of 
which was a snow-white monument, half concealed in black 
silk lace and crape, upon the front face of which was a beauti- 
ful wreath of immortelle. 

Just above the monument was a superb crayon portrait of 
Presideht Lincoln, and higher still a black cloth shield having 
in silver letters the inscription — 

A.LINCOLN, 
DiedAprillS, 

1865. 

In rear of the stage on either side were memorial arches 
standing on pillars supporting the flag, and bearing' on a dark 
ground in large silver letters, on the right — 

the nation mourns. 
On the left— 

HONOR TO THE DEPARTED. 



At the right and left, flags were arranged in pyramidal 
shape, having heavy black borders, and almost speaking the 
sorrow of which they were only the mute and touching 
emblems. 

The large audience present were united in tlieir commenda- 
tion of the propriety and good taste shown throughout in the 
arrangement of the decorations. 

The brief Address of the President, Samuel T. Cobb, Esq., 
was feelingly delivered and exceedingly appropriate ; and the 
singing by the Sumner Glee Club was very effective. 



EULOGY. 



BIr. President, Officers and Members of the Union League, 

and Friends : 

You have elected me to a task, the difficulty of which is not 
to know what to say, but how to condense within any reason- 
able period of time what ought to be said. 

With you all, I feel it to be utterly impossible to make language 
express the appreciation, gratitude and reverence filling all 
loyal hearts toward our deceased Chief Magistrate, and esteem the 
irrepressible tears and the spontaneous testimonials of the people, 
a tribute of profounder significance, and far greater worth than 
the most glowing words admiration can prepare. What the 
eulogist may utter has "been made ready beforehand, and to 
some extent must be artificial. The attention of this audience 
may be a matter of form or courtesy, and nothing more. But 
the shock of horror felt in every State, city, town, village, and 
loyal heart, when the trembling wires spread news of Mr. Lin- 
coln's assassination, the uncontrollable outburst of grief and 
anguish which the fearful tidings caused, the wail of sorrow 
spreading from street to street, from mart to mart, and from 
house to house, which bespoke a sense of personal tribulation, 
making strong men stand still suddenly in the very pathway 
of vigorous business activity, and weep bitter, burning tears ; 
the gloom of despondency which spread its pall over every com- 
munity, drawing down the starry banner from its proud mast- 
head of triumph and glory to the place of lamentation, stamp- 
ing sadness on every face, calling forth the insignia of mourning 
from countless abodes of life and labor, and making even school 
children, dismissed from their daily tasks, walk slowly and 
softly through the streets, as though each one of them had a 



8 

dear, loved friend dead at home, — these' were testimonials of 
bereavement which the student of history will ponder far more 
than he will the eloquent language of praise, or the carefully 
prepared offerings of studied and elaborate laudation. 

"Wliat the people have done of their own free will and accord, 
— the people who loved Abraham Lincoln, and whom he loved, 
— is far more and far better than anything his eulogists can do, 
and will be quoted to his honor long after their words shall have 
been forgotten. 

Those who spring from the pcoi)le arc not always true to 
their interests, or willing to acknowledge the humility of their 
own origin. Not a trace of this unworthy pride can he be 
accused of having exhibited. Master of the White House in 
Washington, he was the same genial, frank, unpretending man 
he had been in his father's log cabin on the Sangamon River, 
Illinois, thirty years before. 

To him belongs the credit of having worked his way up from 
the humblest position an American freeman can occupy, to the 
highest and most powerful, without losing in the least the sim- 
plicity and sincerity of nature which endeared him alike to the 
plantation slave and the metropolitan millionaire. 

He was born in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky, on 
the 12tli of February, 1809. His parents were very poor, and 
barely managed to get along. 

He was a dutiful and industrious son, and contributed to the 
sui)port of the family as soon as he was able to work. His time 
was so fully occupied cultivating corn and securing subsistence 
for the common support, that there was none left for the sowing 
of wild oats. He was fond of study and books, and improved 
all his leisure moments in storing his mind with valuable 
information. 

In 181G, the family moved to Spencer County, Indiana, and 
in 1830 to Macon County, Illinois. .AH this time he did what- 
ever came in his wiiy that could contribute to the general wel- 
fare ; cut down trees and shaped them into logs for the family 
residence, helped manufacture t-liairs, tables, bedsteads and 
otlier articles of rude househuld furniture ; split rails to fence 
in the ten acre lot selected for the family r;irm ; cleared up the 
land ; engaged as day laborer in a neighboring saw-mill ; worked 
as a common baud uj)ou the Hat boats that Uoated down the 



"Wabash and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans ; went hunting 
for deer and wild turkeys with which the region aboiTuded ; 
engaged in storekeeping, then in surveying; volunteered as a 
captain in the Black Hawk war, re-enlisted twice as a private, 
shrinking from no danger or hardships, first to go and last to 
return; and finally, in 1835, having been elected representative 
to the legislature of Illinois, concluded to study law and settle 
in Springfield, the capital of the State. 

His practice at the bar did not withdraw him from politics, 
however, and for twenty years he was one of the most influen- 
tial champions of whig principles in Illinois, several times made 
presidential elector, and appointed in 1846 representative to 
Congress. While a member of this body, the famous " Wilmot 
Proviso " was introduced. It sprang from a motion to place 
two millions of dollars in the hands of President Polk, pending 
peace arrangements with Mexico, and read, " Provided, that, as 
an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any 
territory from the republic of Mexico by the United States, by 
virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, 
and to the use of the Executive of the moneys herein appro- 
priated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever 
exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, v/hereof the 
party shall first be duly convicted." During the fierce and 
angry debates which ensued, Mr. Lincoln came out emphati- 
cally in favor of the Proviso, and voted for its passage forty-two 
times in succession. He associated himself openly and fearlessly 
with leading abolitionists in Congress, comprising such men as 
Messrs. Chase, Gid.dings, and Seward ; took strong ground 
against the constitutionality of the Mexican war, protesting and 
voting in opposition to tlie bill which granted to volunteers for 
this war 160 acres of the public land, besides their pay. He 
became at once a marked and prominent man ; one of the 
acknowledged leaders of the Henry Clay whigs of the West, 
and in 1849 was nominated by members of the Illinois legisla- 
ture for United States senator. 

Though recipient of a strong vote, it was not sufficient to 
secure his election, and Gen. Shields, the democratic candidate, 
was sent. 

Undismayed by failure, and confident that right must ulti- 
mately triumph over wrong, even in American politics, he set 



10 

himself to work in 1852, in behalf of General Scott ; allowed 
his name to be used for the United States Senate again, in 1855 ; 
gave the whole power of his influence in favor of Fremont, in 
1856, heading the Illinois electoral ticket in his favor, and 
entered the lists in 1858 against Stephen A. Douglas, the 
" Little Giant " of Western democracy, following or preceding 
him all over the State of Illinois, and worsting him so thoroughly 
in every encounter, that hundreds of his adherents were won 
over to the cause of his adversaries. 

It was during this remarkable campaign that Mr, Lincoln 
revealed tliose sterling qualities of mind and heart which fixed 
him most firmly in the affections and confidence of the people. 
His speeches were always received with favor, sometimes with 
vociferous applause and uncontrollable enthusiasm. His aim 
was plain as a marksman's, and his words went as straight to 
the understandings and common sense of his auditors as a shot 
to a target. He espoused a high tariff, proved the necessity of 
a thorough protective policy, advocated the rights of colored 
men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, denounced 
the Dred Scott decision, and plead for the immortal principles 
contained in the Declaration of Independence with a pathos and 
eloquence which carried everything before them. 

"Now my countrymen," he said, "if you liave been taught doctrines 
conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence ; 
if you h;ive hstened to suggestion? which would take away from its 
grandeur, and mutilate the fair symmetry of its i»roportions, — let me 
entreat you to come back, return to the fountain whose waters spring 
close by the blood of the Revolution. Think nothing of me ; take no 
thought fur the political fate of any man whomsoever. It is nothing; 
I am nothing ; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that 
immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of American Inde- 
pendence." 

Like other prominent jtublic men he foresaw tluit the country 
was on the eve of a great national convulsion, and as early as 
Juno 17, 1858, predicted the " irrepressible conflict," which, dur- 
ing tlic last four years, has caused such lavish expenditures of 
blood and treasure throughout the land. " In my opinion," ho 
declared, in a speech at Springfield, " slavery agitation will not 
cease until a cri>is shall have licen reached and i)assed. A house 



11 

divided against itself cannot stand. Tiiis government cannot 
endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect 
the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall. 
But I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all 
one thing or all the other." 

Regarding this important question he would have no one 
mistake his opinions, and of them made repeated and explicit 
avowals. In Chicago, July 16, 1858, he said, " I have always 
hated slavery as much as any abolitionist. I have been an 
Old Line whig. I always hated it, and always believed it in 
course of ultimate extinction. If I were in Congress, and a 
vote should come up on a question, whether slavery should be 
prohibited in a new territory, — in spite of the Dred Scott decision, 
I would vote that it should." 

Though not elected to the Senate after the exciting canvass 
of 1858, Mr. Lincoln did not abate one iota of his assurance of 
the final spread and triumph of republicanism. His convictions 
were like prophecies, and he worked as though entering upon 
their fulfilment. 

During 1859 and 1860, although in comparative retirement, 
he took the deepest interest in the great questions of freedom 
and slavery, union and secession. State rights and constitutional 
obligations, which were agitating this country from centre to 
circumference, and after his nomination to the presidency in 
Chicago, May 18th, 1860, confined himself no longer within the 
limits of his adopted State, but began his appeals for freedom 
and the Union throughout the Middle and Eastern, as well as 
the Western States. 

Wherever he went he made friends. The people felt that he 
deserved the title " Honest Abe," which had been conferred 
upon him at home. If any one could be safely trusted with the 
destinies of the country at the most critical juncture of affairs 
through which it had ever passed, they became convinced that 
he was the man. Friends of Seward, Fremont, Chase, Cameron, 
Bates, and Dayton, all united on him, therefore, and uniting 
they elected him. 

His simplicity, humility and entire lack of personal conceit, 
were almost without a precedent among politicians, and it must 
be colifessed somewhat disappointed the more ardent or artful 
of his friends. He was not given to diplomacy in the least, had 



12 

no taste for the trickery of wire-pullers and log-rolling, no heart 
for button-hole and lobby legislation. What he felt he said, 
and what he said he meant. He was a plain man, of plain 
manners, with a plain object before him, and a plain way of 
reaching it. Hence he avoided all flourishes of trumpets when 
it was possible to do so, preferring to let his words and the 
cause they advocated, stand upon their own merits, and abide 
the sober judgment of the people. 

In his eager pursuit and honest advocacy of whatever cause 
he espoused, he seemed to forget himself and care only for the 
object at which he aimed. Such questions as, "What will people 
think of it ? What ciFcct will it have upon my prospects and 
reputation ? never entered his mind. Just previous to the 
delivery of his Cooper Institute address, he was called upon to 
furnish a copy for the next morning's paper. Taken all aback, 
he remonstrated with his visitor for suggesting such a thing, 
doubting whether any paper in New York would care to set it 
up, or, if published, whether the people would take the trouble 
to read it. 

When asked if he or his agents liad prepared any of those 
brief t-pecial notices, which in all our daily pa})crs gently 
insinuate that the public had better think well of something or 
somebody before they have hud the first opportunity to think 
anything at all, he responded, " certainly not," and seemed 
entirely unaware that such charming little artifices were in 
common use among candidates for popular favor. 

While visiting the institutions of New York, at this time, ho 
went into the famous asylum at Five Points. Not being known 
to the superintendent, he addressed the inmates at some lenglli 
in his peculiar, straightforward manner, now convulsing them 
with laughter, and then melting them to tears, and was about 
taking his leave, when being rcijuested to jiut his name upon 
the visitor's book, he simply wrote "Abraham Lincoln," and 
passed out of the building. 

Tlio same humble estimate of himself marked liis departure 
from his home in Springfield, where, having resided for twenty- 
fivo years, he was regarded not only with confidence, but ah 
with alfection. The multitude that had gathered together, 
among whom were hundreds of personal friends, would huvc a 



13 

speech, and though trembling with emotion, caused by the idea 
of a separation that might be final, he said: — 

" No one can appreciate tlie sadness I feel at this parting. To this 
people I owe all that I am. Here 1 have lived more than a quarter of 
a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies 
buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again A duty devolves 
upon me which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon 
any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have 
succeeded, except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at 
all times relied. I feel that /cannot succeed without the same Divine 
aid which sustained him ; and in the same Almighty Being I place my 
reliance for support ; and I hope that you, my friends, will all pray that 
I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, 
but with which success is certain." 

Eyes unaccustomed to weeping were wet when he concluded ; 
hearts that came calm to witness his departure, returned strug- 
gling with emotion after he had gone ; and from hundreds of 
lips, unused to prayer, broke forth that day the supplicatory 
ejaculations, God bless him, and shield him, and help liim. 

Although his journey from Springfield to the border line 
between freedom and slavery was made, by the spontaneous 
offerings of the people, like the march of a monarch speeding to 
his coronation, the bands and banners, bells and cannon, 
plaudits and welcomes of millions, did not even temporarily 
lull him into forgetfulness of the great and solemn crisis in 
which he had been called to act so prominent and important a 
part. He thought so much of duty that he was never intoxi- 
cated with success. He repeated over and over again the burden 
of his speech at Springfield, as though he could not bear to 
have the public unconscious of the momentous events hastening 
on to decide at once and forever the doom of the Great Republic 
of America. 

" It is true," he said to the Senate of Ohio, " that very great responsi- 
bility rests upon me in the position to which the votes of the American 
people have called me. I am deeply sensible of that weighty responsi- 
bility, /cannot but know what you all know, that without a name, per- 
haps without a reason Avhy I should have a name, there has fallen upon 
me a task such as did not rest upon the 'Father of his Country ;' and, 



14 

so feeling, I cannot but turn, then, and look to the American people, and 
to that God who has never forsaken them." 

Ill such a spirit lie went forward to the Xational Capital, 
followed even then by the bloodhounds of treason and slavery, 
and took in his hands the helm of State. Portentous clouds, 
black with sectional hatred and party rancor loomed up North, 
and East, and West, as well as South ; before him fourteen States 
and six millions of people, malcontent, wrathful, defiant — 
gathering munitions of war, — haughtily spurning his authority, 
and scoffing at his remonstrances ; behind him a doubtful con- 
stituency, an empty treasury, a dismantled navy, a scattered 
army, a divided Congress ; on one side a score or so of hot- 
headed radicals, pulling him frantically forward ; on the other, 
thousands of cool conservatives, holding him as firmly back ; 
abroad, sneers and chuckles at his dilemma, interspersed with 
confident predictions of speedy overthrow, or insolent thrcaten- 
ings of hostile interference ; at home, volumes of unsolicited 
advice, warning and ridicule, spiced with repeated threats of 
assassination ! Who but one possessing the will of a martyr, 
the nerve of a hero, the devotion of a saint, and the strength 
of a giant, could have endured such a pressure for a single 
month ? 

He was all these, — and like all these, declared the policy he 
should follow. He had no pet projects of his own to favor, no 
attractive novelties to recommend for others. On tlie one side 
he would not be forced ahead any faster than he felt it to be his 
duty to go ; on the other he would not V)e kept back an instant 
when the time had fully come to move. lie would not recog- 
nize the dissolution of the Union, as maintained by foes in front 
or traitors in the rear, but steadfastly insisted upon its continu- 
ance and acknowledgment wherever the Constitution and laws 
had once held sway. His first inaugural was a comi)lcte expo- 
sition of the principles of his administration, and is the best 
paper to read even now for obtaining a summary of his convic- 
tions and purposes. It assured Southern people that they had 
no ground for apprclicnsion or hostility ; that all the provisions 
of tlic Constitution should bo rigorously observed until lawfully 
anjciulcd, even to that obnoxious clause comi>clling the rendi- 
tion of fugitive slaves. It examined the (juestion of secession 



15 

in the light of history, by the teachings of experience, and 
according to the logic of government. It decided that no State 
could lawfully secede, appealed to Union lovers everywhere to 
prevent secession, and declared that the Union must and should 
be maintained, — concluding with these weighty and touching 
words : — 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is 
the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. 
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I 
shall have the most solemn one to * preserve, protect and defend it.' I 
am loth to close. "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be 
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our 
bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every 
battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all 
over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again 
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

Never, in this, or any other land, were uttered words more 
elegant and felicitous. They fell that day, alas, upon many 
ears that were dull of hearing ; but, long after this generation 
shall have passed away, they will be quoted among the finest 
passages of modern literary composition. Nothing evinces 
genius and greatness more than clearness and precision of 
speech, combined with the ability of making a few words convey 
a great deal of meaning. In this respect President Lincoln 
was never excelled, seldom equalled, by the distinguished 
speakers of the country. With marvellous discrimination he 
grasped the strong points of every subject brought to his notice, 
and presented them briefly in lucid and forcible language. Few 
are the intellects so feeble as to be bewildered by his public 
statements and addresses ; none so great as to better tlie garb 
he choose to carry his views to the minds of the people. 

Everything he has ever said, everything he has ever written, 
will ere long be gathered together and presented to the country 
he lived and labored and died to serve. His words will circu- 
late from the nortli-east boundary line of Maine, across the broad 
prairies of the West, and far beyond the Rocky Mountains to 
the shores of Oregon, and the golden sands of California, 
Pioneers will read thera in their forest huts or hillside homes,. 



16 

far removed from the life and stir of human habitations ; miners 
repeat tliem to each other as they develop the mineral and 
metallic wealth of the lands he has helped to free for their 
inheritance ; merchants will quote them in the same breath 
with the best maxims of Poor Richard the sagacious ; and 
mechanics ponder their meaning with pleasure and profit united. 
Nay, even planters, converted to freedom, will own tliat heknew 
better than they what was best for the nation, and teach their 
children to rise up and call him, " blessed." Shall I quote a 
few of these words spoken before Independence Hall, Philadel- 
phia, in February, 1861, and tell you how the people felt them ? 
He was to hoist a new flag, with thirty-four stars, to the crest 
of the staff surmounting the roof. Holding in his hand the 
halyard, he said — 

" Each additional star added to that Hag has given additional pros- 
perity and happiness to this country, until it has advanced to its present 
condition ; and its welfare in the future, as well as in the past, is in your 
hands. Cultivating the spirit that animated our fathers, who gave 
renown and celebrity to this hall, cherishing that fraternal feeling which 
has so long characterized us as a nation, excluding passion, ill-temper, 
and precipitate action on all occasions, I think we may promise ourselves 
that additional stars shall from time to time be placed upon that flag, until 
we shall number, as was anticipated by the great historian, five hundred 
millions of happy and prosperous people." 

Every eye was strained with expectation, and every throat 
with shouting. The cheers of the people were like the roar of 
waves which would not cease to lireak. For full three minutes 
they continued without iiiternijitioii, while the Prei^idciit stood 
in an attitude of silent solemnity. His arms were then (juickly 
cxteiidod, each hand jiulled alternately at the halyards, and a 
bundle of tricolored bunting which had never kissed the wind 
before, rose slowly towards heaven. If the cheering liad been 
enthusiastic previously, now it was absolutely frantic. From 
the smallest urchin in the crowd to the tall form which rivalled 
tlie President's in compass of chest and strength of limb, there 
rose one wild tumultuous cry. Suddenly, the glorious emblem 
of liberty and union, having reached the summit of the mast, 
unrolled all at once, and (lashed in the sunlight, bathing the 
roof; cannon thundered through the street; men leaped and 



17 

stamped and shouted ; tlie crowd swayed to and fro as if the 
very earth were heaving beneath them, and the old hall rang 
again and again with the repeated cheers of its new consecration 
to freedom and equal rights. 

What President Lincoln was during those few moments of 
patriotic exertion, raising and holding aloft the stars and stripes 
before the eyes of all the people, so he continued for the whole 
four years of his subsequent career. During the dark days 
which succeeded Bull Run first and second, Fredericksburg and 
Chancellorsville, he never despaired of the Republic. During 
all the misunderstandings and conflicts of opinion whicli arose 
between him and such men as Cameron, Fremont, Hunter, 
McClellan and Seymour, he kept steadily on towards the object 
at which he had aimed from the beginning, turning neither to the 
right hand to notice ridicule, nor to the left to rebut calumny. 
When he warned the rebels of confiscation of property and 
emancipation of slaves unless they returned to their allegiance, 
his opposers loudly boasted that he would never dare to institute 
such measures, and even his friends feared he would lack the 
spirit to carry them out. But at the appointed time the pro- 
clamation was issued, and the act became a law. Even then it 
was laughed at, denominated " Brutum, fulmen^'* a harmless 
thunderbolt, and a Pope's bull against the comet. But he car- 
ried it out even to the victory at Gettysburg, to the capture of 
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, to the campaign through the Wil- 
derness, to the conquest of Charleston, Savannah, Richmond, 
Mobile, and every fort and town in rebel possession ; to the sur- 
render and dispersion of Lee's army, Johnston's army. Hood's 
army, and Bragg's army ; he would have carried it out, had he 
lived, to the thorough pacification and restoration of the rebel 
States, to the abolition of slavery, and to the extension of freedom 
to every human being in the land. 

Such elements entered into the composition of his character 
as precisely to adapt him to the sphere he was to fill, and the 
work he was to do. Never was fact more manifest, than that 
he was providentially raised up and fitted for the office he held 
and the trust he assumed. He needed first, decision of char- 
acter, and had it. Although he hated slavery, he had sworn to 
support the Constitution which favored slavery, and not the 
first step would he take or allow to be taken against it, until it 
2 



18 



became an indispensable military necessity. So, when General 
Fremont attempted emancipation, he forbade it, because the 
time had not yet come ; when General Hunter made the same 
experiment in South Carolina, he was promptly relieved of his 
command, and his order revoked; when General Cameron 
urged in the strongest manner the arming of the blacks, he said, 
" No ; it is not yet an indispensable military necessity." Not 
till July, 1862, when he urged the border States to favor com- 
l^ensated emancipation, and they refused, did he say, Now the 
time has come. Let us arm the blacks, let us free the blacks ; 
for it has become an indispensable military necessity. 

It was a remarkable feature in his character that having made 
up his mind upon any matter, he never swerved a hair. Judge 
Douglas himself acknowledged that when once he came to a 
conclusion he was not to be withdrawn from it by artifice, 
coaxed from it by persuasion, or driven from it by force. 

In the summer of 1834, having been elected for the first time 
member of the Illinois legislature, he was expected to " treat." 
His friends came hot and thirsty from the polls, bringing the 
usual crowd with them, talking over the election, telling how 
it was managed, and cheering lustily for the successful candi- 
date. " Of course, you must treat," whispered an intimate 
friend into one car, " for these men all voted for you." " Of 
course," chimed in another, in the other car, " for they expect 
it." But the sturdy young representative shook his head, and 
responded, " Of course )iot, gentlemen ; plenty to cat, and 
plenty of tea, coffee and water to drink, but not a drop of rum 
or whiskey do you receive from me." 

Volunteering having failed to supply men for our armies as 
fast as tliey were needed, it became evident in 1803 that a draft 
was inevitable. " It will never do; we cannot survive it; it 
will divide the North, distract the country, and ruin us all." 
Such were some of the milder remonstrances with which the 
press at first abounded ; while tlie phrases, " unparalleled abuse 
of power, unmitigated tyranny, relentless despotism, subversion 
of poj)\iUir liltcrties," and the like, were still stronger intimida- 
tions thrown out by copperheads against the measure. But the 
draft came, and was executed ; it came again and again, and it 
was evidently Mr. Lincoln's determination to arm the last man 
upon whom ho could lay his hand, and spend the last dollar ho 



19 

could raise, before he would concede a particle to rebels and 
traitors in arms against the government. Again, the capture of 
Mason and Slidell sent a thrill of delight all over the country, 
in which no doubt the President fully shared. But there were 
intimations that England would demand their release, or 
consider their retention a " casus belli.'''' She did so, and not- 
withstanding the outcry made against it, Mr. Lincoln gave them 
up. Such was his decision of character. Equally marked in 
the second place was his force of character. Force of character 
makes a person prompt, quick, energetic and ready ; and never 
was it more needed by mortal man than when Mr. Lincoln went 
to "Washington, and found everything to do, nothing to do it 
with, and hardly anybody to help him. When the First Regi- 
ment arrived in that city, June 17th, 1861, they found no bar- 
racks, no tents, no rooms prepared for their reception, no 
rations obtained for their subsistence, and no idea apparent what 
they were to do, where they were to go, or what they had come 
there to accomplish. The officers had to buy food for their 
men, and at last procured shelter for them in a vacant building 
on Pennsylvania Avenue, which they jQlled like bees in a hive 
from cellar to attic. Such was the condition of things through- 
out the capital. Buchanan and his perjured cabinet had liter- 
ally cleaned it out. "Without troops, without arms, without 
means, without credit, without sympathy abroad or harmony at 
home, Mr. Lincoln at the White House was truly like a pioneer 
in the woods, with nothing but his axe and his hands. 

But he had been in the woods before, and gotten out of them. 
He gathered about him a circle of noble, devoted and industrious 
men. They went to work. They organized an army, manu- 
factured a navy, established troops upon the enemy's soil, built 
up the national credit till they filled the treasury, brought 
order out of anarchy and confusion, profited by defeat so that 
it became better than victory, cheered the loyal and intimidated 
the treasonable at home, enlightened the ignorant and cowed 
the inimical abroad, set all the forges blazing and all the wheels 
of industry humming throughout the North, caused money to 
be more plentiful and business more brisk than they had been 
for years before, and finally made success a certainty. Of all 
these great achievements Mr. Lincoln was the principal cause. 
He arose early every morning, attending to his extensive private 



20 

correspondence before breakfast, devoted himself to business 
and callers throughout the day, was closeted with his cabinet 
hour after hour twice a week, and up until eleven or twelve at 
night, calling upon Secretary Seward, Secretary Stanton, Secre- 
tary Welles, or General Halleck, full of a restless energy and 
indomitable fervor. On one occasion, wishing to consult with 
General Scott, he started off post haste to New York alone, had 
his interview, and returned within three days. Three or four 
times a year he would visit the soldiers, going through all the 
exhaustion of a great review, and returning to his post fresh as 
ever. When it was necessary to make arrests of prominent 
individuals, like Marshal Kane and Tallandigham, he did not 
hesitate an instant to do so, although they were called " arbi- 
trary." When military exigencies required the removal of 
unsuccessful leaders, like McClellan, Fremont, and Po])C, tliey 
were at once displaced. Into everything he touched he infused 
his own vitality and force, forming his plans with a sagacity and 
foresight which seemed almost supernatural, waiting with an 
infinite patience for them to ripen and mature, but then hasten- 
ing them through with all possible despatch. Having such 
force of character, he had also united with it what is rarely seen 
combined, an equal degree of strength of character. Strength 
of character underlies steadiness and persistency. Force of 
character causes ebullition, effervescence, froth ; strength of 
character, perseverance, invincible determination, resolute and 
continuous endeavor. Force is a jjromincnt trait among South- 
erners ; strength among Xortherners. Southerners will be all 
day ma^^sing their forces to fight a battle, and about four o'clock 
in the afternoon make a furious onslaught, threatening to carry 
all before them ; failing in which, they will try it again, even 
more furiously, and finally fall back and give up. Northerners 
will commence fighting at daylight, continue till dark, and no 
matter how unsuccessful, begin the next morning just as early 
and earnestly as ever. 

That is the way we have crushed rebellion, — by our strength. 
General (Jrant is the very impersonation of this clement in 
military affairs. A year ago he drew the line of final and 
assured success, and ev#r ^ince he has been fighting it out on 
that line, until he has fought the rei)el Confederacy entirely out 
of sight. Its cities have fallen, its loader has lied, its armies 



21 

and navy have disappeared, its munitions of war are destroyed, 
its flags will ere long be folded and furled forever. 

Mr. Lincoln has shown a remarkable degree of this quality 
from boyhood up, and never did he need it more than during 
the four years succeeding his election to the presidency. 

He has had all sorts of men to deal with, and been exposed 
to all sorts of influences to make him swerve from the line of 
policy which he had adopted in the beginning ; he has been 
flattered and lampooned, praised and threatened, coaxed and 
derided. To-day men from the border States, to-morrow men 
from the free States, traitors and friends, tricksters and patriots, 
demagogues and saints, have thronged his doors, crowded his 
reception room, and poured their appeals, their criticisms, or 
their complaints, into his ears. He has listened to them all, 
responded when needful, kept his own counsel in the main, and 
invariably carried out his own convictions. 

It was this quality, more than all others, that made him the 
idol of the people. They felt that he was acting not for himself, 
but for them and for the country. What he believed in, they 
knew he would stand by, no matter how great the cost. He 
became, therefore, without exception, the most popular man in 
the nation, and won for himself an amount of confidence and 
affection, that even the immortal Washington failed to inspire. 
The most dangerous thing he did was to suspend the writ of 
habeas corpus. The very suggestion that he might do it, raised 
such an outcry all over the land as had never been heard before, 
and when in spite of denunciation and abuse he went forward 
and did it, one would have supposed from the lamentations 
of his enemies that law and liberty had both been slain and 
buried together. He knew he was acting strictly in accordance 
with the Constitution, however, and having sworn that its pro- 
visions should faithfully be executed, he merely fulfilled the 
obligations of his oath, and left consequences to take care of 
themselves. There can be no doubt that he shrank from col- 
lision with public men, civil and military, and was willing to 
concede everything that could reasonably be expected, to con- 
tinue on good terms with all. But when convinced that duty 
required him to pursue an opposite course, no personal consid- 
erations were allowed to weigh a moment with him. His cor- 
respondence with General McClellan before relieving him of 

2* 



22 

his command, is one of the most remarkable features of his 
administration, not only as exhibiting the untiring resolution of 
his nature, but as showing him to be possessed of military 
genius in an extraordinary and unusual degree. Long before 
McClellan adojoted the plan, President Lincoln urged him to 
divide his army into corps, so that the men might be handled 
with greater ease and readiness, and every good military author- 
ity endorsed the plan. In the spring of 18G2, he insisted upon 
McClellan's taking Yorktown by assault, instead of subjecting 
his immense army to the demoralization of a month or six weeks' 
siege. Subsequent events proved that the rebel Magruder only 
had 5,000 men when the assault was urged, and that if it had 
been made the place would have been carried with ease, and 
they all taken prisoners of war. 

After the great battle of Antietam the President was greatly 
annoyed at the dallying and delay which used up unspeakably 
precious time, and sent the telegram to McClellan, " Your 
army must move now while the roads are good." In a few days 
he forwarded him a letter, giving the reasons for his order, 
which has not its equal in the literature of the war. " Are you 
not overcautious," he asks, " when you assume that you can- 
not do what the enemy is constantly doing ? One of the stand- 
ard maxims of war, as you know, is, to operate upon the enemy's 
communications as much as possible without exposing your own. 
You seem to act as if this applied against you, but cannot apply 
in your favor. You are now nearer Richmond than the enemy 
is, by the route that you can and he must take. Why can you 
not reach there before him, unless you admit that he is more 
than your c(jual on a march ? Ilis route is the arc of a circle, 
while yours is the chord. The roads arc as good on yours as 
on his. At least try to beat him to Richmond on the inside 
track. I say try : if we never try, wo shall never succeed. If 
he make a stand at Winchester, 1 would fight him there, on the 
idea, that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage of 
coming to us, wo never can when we bear the wastage of going 
to him. As we must beat him somewhere or fail finally, we 
can do it, if at all, easier near to us than far away. It is all 
easy if our troops march as well as tlio enemy, and it is unmanly 
to say that they cannot do it." Several other letters passed 
between them, and finally ^IcClellan was relieved. 



23 

No eulogist should omit to mention in the fourth place, his 
purity of character. He has left behind a name upon which 
rests not the least taint or shadow of insincerity. Honest, 
straightforward, plain-spoken as when he entered upon his 
office, he continued to the day of his death. The most malig- 
nant party opposition has never been able to call in question 
the patriotism of his motives, or tarnish with the breath of sus- 
picion the brightness of his spotless fidelity. Ambition did not 
warp, power corrupt, nor glory dazzle him. He felt that he 
was called of God to the administration of a great public trust, 
and what he did, he evidently tried to do as unto God and not 
unto man. 

His faith in Divine Providence seemed like the assurance of 
positive knowledge. In a letter penned on the 4th of April, 
1864, he writes : — 

" I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity, I claim not to have 
controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. 
Now at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not 
what either party or any man devised or expected : God alone can claim 
it. Whither it is tending, seems plain. If God now wills the removal 
of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of 
the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial 
history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and 
goodness of God." 

His purity of character found constant expression in words 
similar to these. He evidently realized that he was acting not 
for himself, but for God, for the nation, for the future. To the 
Old School Presbyterian Synod of Baltimore, he said : — 

"' I was early brought to a lively reflection, that nothing in my j)ower 
whatever, or others, to rely upon, would succeed, without the direct 
assistance of the Almighty. I have often wished that I was a more 
devout man than I am; nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my 
administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my 
whole reliance in God, knowing all would go well, and that he would 
decide for the right." 

Similar addresses lie made to the New School Presbyterians, 
the National Conference of Methodists, and the General Asso- 



24 

ciatiou of Baptists. These Trords evidently came from tlie 
depths of his soul, and were not spoken to conciliate the favor 
of powerful religious bodies. 

He was every morning in the habit of reading the word of 
God, and asking at the throne of Grace, " Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do ? " He did not ask in vain, and his noble career 
supplies believers with fresh proof that " tlie Lord God is a sun 
and a shield, and blessed is the man that trusteth in Ilim." 

His kindness of heart, in the next place, led him to manifest 
a tender and generous interest in all about him. 

Three little girls, daughters of a Washington mechanic, came 
to one of his public receptions, and were going to pass without 
offering him their hands, not supposing that he would take 
them. But he exclaimed, " Little girls, are you going to pass 
me without shaking hands ? " and, bending forward, warmly 
shook each timid little hand, to the manifest delight of every 
one in the room. 

A negro porter in one of the departments was sick of small- 
pox in the hospital, and could not draw his pay because unable 
to sign his name. Mr. Lincoln heard of the case, at considera- 
ble trouble overcame the difficulty, and saw the man furnished 
with everything he desired. One of the New York volunteers 
having died in the hospital of his wounds, desired that his 
crutch might be sent to his wife for a memorial of him. Mr. 
Lincoln attended to his rccjuest, and sent with it fifty dollars 
from his own purse. After tlie fall of Charleston, hearing that 
an old friend had been reduced from allluence to poverty, he 
forwarded a similar sum to him. No wonder he has left his 
family, as it were, almost dependent; for of his time, strength 
and money, he spared nothing, so long as he had any to give 
for the benefit of others. While visiting our wounded soldiers 
after the sanguinary battle of Antietam, he came, in one of the 
hospitals, upon a number of rel)els. He said tiiat he would be 
pleased to shake hands with them if they had no objections ; 
thai he bon; them no ill-will as men ; that his solcnui ol)liga- 
tions to the nation and the future, conipi.'llcd tiic prosecution of 
the war, and made many enemies through unconlrollablji. cir- 
cumstances ; but personally he felt sympathy and sorrow for 
their misforUme. Not a man tliat could move but t^ilently and 
fervently j^hook his hand. 



25 

The tboiiglit, that being President of the United States, he 
was better than other men, seems never to have entered his 
mind, for he treated every loyal and respectable man, without 
reference to his wealth and social standing, with the considera- 
tion due an equal. 

But, in conclusion, the brightest jewel in his crown, was his 
steady, uncompromising, unconditional opposition to slavery. 
This he saw to be the mother of treason, the author of secession, 
the source of collision, trouble and suffering, the cause of 
degradation and discord. North as well as South. 

Bound by an oath to support the Constitution, he held fast 
to his integrity. Assured, sooner or later, of an opportunity to 
carry out his heart's desire, he awaited his time with a modera- 
tion and self-control which challenge the admiration of man- 
kind. Radicals got out of all patience with him, called him 
" slow, heavy, behind the times," and dared to hint that he 
might be induced after all to make terms with the rebels, and 
allow them to leave the Union, taking slavery with them, to 
establish it perpetually in the new nation they were fighting to 
uphold. Conservatives, on the other hand, maintained that he 
was faster than was warranted by the development of events, 
and urged him to withhold his signature, first from the bill 
abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia ; then from the 
statute prohibiting its introduction into any part of the public 
territorial domains ; from the death warrant of Gordon, the 
New York slave trader ; from the act of amnesty, making liberty 
the corner-stone of reconstruction ; from the order enrolling 
colored men as soldiers ; from the recognition of Hayti and 
Liberia ; and finally, from the famous Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation, keystone to a grander arch of patriotic acts than any 
statesman ever built before in any land on earth. 

But forced ahead no faster than conviction urged him on, 
kept back no longer than necessity required him to tarry, he 
gave all his advisers the notice of attention, then marked out 
and trod his own chosen path. At the outset he declared that 
God had made the rebels greater emancipators than we all, and 
would overrule the madness of their frantic efforts to secure the 
perpetuation of slavery, for its final and complete extinction. 
He was in no hurry, therefore, to see the process consummated, 
knowhig that society could not pass through the convulsions of 



26 

such an experience without the infliction of great suffering upon 
the parties most concerned. He had thought and sorrow for 
them even, amid all the triumph of his great achievements, and 
the gladness of his brilliant success. 

He has been permitted, like Moses of old, to lead us to the 
borders of the promised land ; to see a race more numerous 
than our revolutionary fathers when they fought for liberty, 
disenthralled from the bondage of centuries, and allowed an 
equal, rightful share in the blessings of a free and united coun- 
try ; to sign the great amendment, which though not yet a law, 
must soon become the law and boast of every State in the 
Union, and to remove from our land the stain paralyzing so 
long its energies at home, and neutralizing so completely its 
influence abroad. 

The last great effort of pro-slavery despotism has been made, 
and failed. Henceforth throughout the world it Avill be under- 
stood, as never before, that the strong cannot safely crush the 
weak, nor the proud and powerful oppress the lowly. Hence- 
forth there must be practical and judicial recognition of 
Heaven's higher law, that " God hath made of one blood all 
nations that dwell upon the face of the earth, and he careth for 
all alike," and henceforth, first upon the roll of man's noblest 
benefactors, " one of the few, the immortal names that were 
not born to die," will stand the honored name of Abraham 
Lincoln ! upholder and defender of the Union, purifier of the 
Constitution, friend and emancipator of the oppressed, the peo- 
ple's choice and champion ; fearless amid dangers, steadfast in 
uncertainties, uncorrupted by temptation, faitliful in trial as in 
triumph, faithful from the beginning to the end, faithful in life, 
faithful even unto death ! the noblest patriot, the purest poli- 
tician, the grandest man, the greatest benefactor, the most 
glorious martyr, of tiio ago. 

How fitly says the poet Bryant — 

oil, slow to smite and swift to spare, 

Gontlc, and morcifiil and just ! 
Wlio, in the IVar of (!od, didst lioar 

The Bword of power, a nation's trust. 

In Borrow ]>y thy bier wo stand, 
Amid the awe that hushes all, 



27 

And speak the anguish of a land 
That shook with horror at thy fall. 

Thy task is done ; the bond are free ; 

We bear thee to an honored grave, 
Whose noblest monument shall be 

The broken fetters of the slave. 

Pure was thy life ; its bloody close 

Hath placed thee with the sons of light, 

Among the noble host of those 

Who perished in the cause of right ! 



At the conclusion of the Eulogy the audience united in 
singing " America," with the well known hymn — 



My country ! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of Liberty, — 

Of thee, I sing. 
Land where my fathers died ; 
Land of the pilgrims' pride ; 
From every mountain-side 

Let Freedom ring ! 

My native country ! thee — 
Land of the noble free — 

Thy name I love. 
I love thy rocks and rills ; 
Thy woods and templed hills ; 
My heart with rapture thrills, 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze, 
An(f ring from all the trees 

Sweet Freedom's song : 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake, 
Let rocks their silence break. 

The sound prolong. 

Our Fathers' God ! to Thee— 
Author of Liberty ! 

To Thee, we sing. 
Long may our land be bright 
With Freedom's holy light — 
Protect us by thy might. 

Great God, our King ! 



